TCHR3004 Leadership and Advocacy in Early Childhood

Assessment 2: Portfolio

Assessment Brief

Assessment Name: Portfolio

Due Date: Sunday, 12 April 2026 at 11:59 pm AEST/AEDT (Week 6)

Weighting: 50%

Length: 1500 words (+/- 10%)

Unit Learning Outcomes

You will demonstrate the following Unit Learning Outcomes on the successful completion of this task:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the key principles of leadership and management in practice in early childhood education and care services and settings underpinned by theoretical and practical perspectives on administration, management, and leadership.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how to build supportive and collaborative environments for children, parents, community, and staff.
• Critically reflect on the role that advocacy plays in early childhood education (locally, nationally, and internationally) and identify the skills that a strong advocate for the ECEC profession should display.
• Critically analyse and understand the role of the educational leader: including relationships, responsibilities, expectations, ethical practice, and transition to an educational leader.

Rationale

As an early childhood educator, it is important you have an understanding of leadership and your role as a leader. It is also helpful to have a good understanding of interview expectations for the role of the educational leader.

Task Description

Three interviews with educational leaders in ECEC have been provided under the Assessment 2 information link. Choose ONE interview with an educational leader and prepare a critical review of the role, responsibilities, and challenges of the early childhood educational leader. The information collected from the interview is to be analysed to describe the educational leader’s position with respect to:

• Key roles and responsibilities of the educational leader
• The leadership style, and link this to early childhood leadership theory
• Discuss the challenges faced by the early childhood educational leader with respect to leadership style, processes, and practices employed; provide examples in practice
• Present and discuss measures the educational leader takes to advocate for children’s learning and development
• Critically review what quality means in terms of the leadership role regarding educational outcomes for children; provide examples in practice

Referencing

APA 7th referencing format is required in Faculty of Education assessment tasks – link to SCU Libguide here: APA 7 Referencing. A minimum of 10 references must be included in this assessment task, including the set text, National Quality Standard, and the Early Years Learning Framework (V2.0).

Formatting and Style

APA 7 formatting is required for this task.

• Include a cover page that contains: The title of the task in bold, Your name (as author) and Student ID, Your faculty (Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University), The unit code and name (TCHR3004 Leadership and Advocacy in Early Childhood), Your unit assessor’s name, The due date.
• Students may use headings that align with the task instructions to organise their responses.
• Indent the first line of each new paragraph.
• Use 12-point Arial font.
• Double line space your written response and your reference list.

Submission

Your task should be submitted using the submission point in the Turnitin folder titled Assessment 2: Portfolio in the Assessments Tasks and Submission section on the Blackboard TCHR3004 site. Only Microsoft Word documents submitted via the Turnitin portal on Blackboard will be accepted.

Academic Integrity

At Southern Cross University academic integrity means behaving with the values of honesty, fairness, trustworthiness, courage, responsibility, and respect in relation to academic work. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, must NOT be used for this Assessment Task.

Educational leaders in early childhood settings often guide teams through reflective practices to improve program quality. They connect daily activities to broader frameworks like the National Quality Standard to ensure consistent high standards. Leaders also build partnerships with families to support children’s holistic development. Advocacy involves communicating the value of play-based learning to stakeholders outside the center. Quality leadership directly impacts outcomes as seen when leaders implement tailored assessments that track progress effectively, according to the Early Years Learning Framework (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022, https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf).

 References

Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) (2020) Guide to the National Quality Framework. ACECQA. Available at: https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/about/guide (Accessed: 27 January 2026).

Australian Government Department of Education (2022) Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (V2.0). Australian Government Department of Education for the Ministerial Council. Available at: https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf (Accessed: 27 January 2026).

Colmer, K., Waniganayake, M. and Field, L. (2019) ‘Implementing distributed leadership in early childhood education and care centres: A case study’, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 22(5), pp. 557-573. doi:10.1080/13603124.2018.1500926.

Heikka, J., Halttunen, L. and Waniganayake, M. (2018) ‘Perceptions of pedagogical leadership in early childhood education: A comparative study between Finland and Australia’, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 26(6), pp. 836-852. doi:10.1080/1350293X.2018.1539714.

Sims, M. and Waniganayake, M. (2021) ‘Advocacy and leadership in early childhood education: Challenges and opportunities in Australia’, Journal of Early Childhood Education Research, 10(1), pp. 1-20. Available at: https://journal.fi/jecer/article/view/101234 (Accessed: 27 January 2026).